Saturday, December 3, 2016
Rifle Arch in the Grand Hogback on a cold morning with Battlement Mesa in the distance.
To be honest, our goal for the day was not really to hike to Rifle Arch. Recently, I had learned about a pizza place in New Castle called Hogback Pizza that was supposed to have a good Chicago Style Stuffed Pizza. Since I left the Chicago area I have not been able to find a good stuffed pizza in Colorado and I wanted to see just how good theirs really was. (It turned out to be the best stuffed pizza I have found outside of the Chicago area.) However, I did not want to drive to New Castle just to try some pizza, so I figured we’d find a short hike we could do on our way there and we settled on hiking to Rifle Arch. It was a short 3 mile round-trip hike to the arch but it was much colder outside than we expected it to be and there was a thin layer of snow on the ground. Even though the sky was overcast and I wasn’t able to get any decent photos, it still was a large and impressive arch. I will definitely have to return another day with better photographic conditions.
The trailhead for Rifle Arch with the Grand Hogback in the distance. The arch is not visible from here but can easily be seen once you climb to the top of the first ridge.
The view of the arch from the trail right before the steep climb up to it.
The first thing I noticed when I reached the arch was the large tree growing underneath it.
The view from behind the arch with the Roan Cliffs in the background.
Below is a GPS track from our hike in case you would like to check this arch out for yourself.